3D-printed duck soon to be available at the LEGO House
Posted by CapnRex101,
LEGO has announced that the 3D-printed duck element, which was distributed to attendees at the LEGO House AFOL day in September, will be available again at the LEGO House this month.
The 3D-printed duck will be released as part of the Minifigure Factory experience from Friday to Sunday throughout November, starting on the 11th. You can find more information on the LEGO House website.
Additionally, Huw wrote about this interesting element in September, noting its remarkable complexity, although also its 'un-LEGO-like' qualities.
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32 comments on this article
I see no reason to be excited about this. Looks cheap.
Playmobile
This would be a great VIP reward, that way it is available globally to those who want it, and an easy pass for those who don't. Additionally with it being 3D printed, it could essentially be made to order so supply would always meet demand.
‘We want to be more green, but the only way of getting this tiny duck is to fly to Denmark’!
Quackery?
Given another 10 years or so of development, I'm sure 3-D printing will look great. At present, it's hideous. I just hope Lego don't have the bright idea of producing anything else by this cheap and nasty method.
Hard pass.
@exoboy555 said:
"This would be a great VIP reward, that way it is available globally to those who want it, and an easy pass for those who don't. Additionally with it being 3D printed, it could essentially be made to order so supply would always meet demand."
Great idea, second this.
I wonder what the people who paid hundreds of £$€ when the piece first appeared will think of this news
@EvilTwin said:
"I wonder what the people who paid hundreds of £$€ when the piece first appeared will think of this news"
Had an instant ouch moment for DuckBricks.
@EvilTwin said:
"I wonder what the people who paid hundreds of £$€ when the piece first appeared will think of this news"
The news is just the dates. In September they had stated very clearly that the duck would be available again later this year.
@Slobrojoe said:
"Playmobile"
Possibly true, but Playmobil produce some pretty nice stuff at a good price point. I was bought the DB5 as a present and immediately dismissed it until I opened it and instantly loved it - a proper well made toy worthy of display especially if you have children who enjoy playing with it from time to time.
@sjr60 said:
"Given another 10 years or so of development, I'm sure 3-D printing will look great. At present, it's hideous. (...)"
Absolutely agreed!
...but it is USEFUL. In a previous job I was able to print out a decent quantity of Monorail track of designs not previously released by LEGO. They probably aren't as refined as the ones 4DBrix used to produce, but the track sections have improved my layout no end!
The age-old excuse of "no more Monorail because the moulds got melted-down" or whatever, will hopefully be moot one day. This ugly duckling represents the beginning of my dream scenario where LEGO's Pick a Brick will just be able to print out any part you want to order, quickly, accurately, & durably. A section of factory with dedicated (probably SLS) 3D-printers could save a lot of space that inventory would otherwise take up.
...and then (stretch goal) they could use the saved inventory space to stock printed parts and rid the world of stickers forever!
It's always funny if people invest in something like this only for the price to drop later.
I mean, did you buy it for yourself or to make a buck on? If the latter, you're a reseller. Not selling it soon is creating artificial scarcity. That's scalping.
In both cases you'd have brought the lowering price upon yourself.
I wonder if any brickset friends are living close to Billund who can help me to get the 3D duck piece? You can keep the minifigure factory figure as a thank-you gift. I only want the 3D duck. Please let me know if you could help! Many thanks!
I am completely bewildered and I am wondering how I managed to live all those years without this particular part(s).
Since I now seem to be immune to the need of having this, I will continue that way unless this becomes a GWP (as mentioned above) or is included in a set.
Wouldn’t know what to do with it
A few years back, Ford put up 1:32 models of most of the current USDM range on Turbosquid, and also sold preprinted versions.
Don't see why LEGO couldn't do it for the duck.
@sjr60:
Resolution will always run afoul of speed. At present, 3D printing is done by tracing 1D lines in a 3D matrix, and the faster you want to finish the piece, the garbagier the resulting surface looks, particularly if it involves shallow compound curves. When they can figure out how to print entire planes and just run bottom-to-top in a single pass, then 3D printing might look good without costing a fortune.
@EvilTwin:
I’m still wondering if the person who dropped $2000 on an unannounced SDCC Azog, which appeared shortly thereafter in a basic retail set, regrets their purchase, or if the fancy clamshell package makes it worth spending two World Maps.
@PurpleDave said:
"Resolution will always run afoul of speed. At present, 3D printing is done by tracing 1D lines in a 3D matrix, and the faster you want to finish the piece, the garbagier the resulting surface looks, particularly if it involves shallow compound curves. When they can figure out how to print entire planes and just run bottom-to-top in a single pass, then 3D printing might look good without costing a fortune."
Almost correct...
At present, at-home 3D-printing is done by laying down a "one"-dimensional line to build 2D planes which are stacked to make the 3D model.
This duck was made using selective laser sintering which uses a process very much like what you desire where they print entire(ish) planes at once (basically by zapping a bucket of plastic sand to make it stick together). Currently, most SLS still gives the grainy surface finish you can see on the duck.
A smoother future awaits!
@exoboy555 said:
"This would be a great VIP reward, that way it is available globally to those who want it, and an easy pass for those who don't. Additionally with it being 3D printed, it could essentially be made to order so supply would always meet demand."
Or put it in regular sets as well.
@Slobrojoe said:
"Playmobile"
I agree. It'll shatter immediately, but I still really want it.
Anyone going Lego House can get a few of these and send them to me in the states? I’m a member of the local lug and a few members will love to have this cool little piece. Please message me if possible.
@capnrex101 It was available last weekend on Friday / Saturday - we were there. They were also randomly asking for people to take part in a survey, my youngest answered questions which were filmed for their development team
@CCC:
Bard was a little different situation. Bard was announced, was noted to not have the SDCC Exclusive bug, and people were able to compare it with other minifigs to determine that it was just repackaged. Azog was never announced, only one copy popped up online during SDCC that I ever heard about, and there hadn’t even been any minifigs of Azog revealed at that point, much less released. That was a panic buy for sure, with some completist fearing it would actually be unique (and to be fair, they definitely could have given it a unique face print if they’d felt like it). For myself, SDCC Azog, SDCC Bard, and the velour bagged Bilbo are the only three items I know of that I don’t own, and I’m okay with those gaps. For that kind of money, I’d rather get the large Batpod, Zebra Batman, the SDCC Gotham skyline, and/or the Batman-themed NYTF invites.
I must admit, I prefer the duck I've got arriving tomorrow. But that comes in garter blue from Dapol.
@StyleCounselor said:
"I see no reason to be excited about this. Looks cheap."
It’s a cool technical achievement, but that’s about it. Anyone paying large amounts for this on ebay deserve what they get. :D
@Slobrojoe said:
"Playmobile"
I’m guessing you mean the style, not the quality? Playmobile has always been very well made (or at least it was when I was younger)
@EvilTwin said:
"I wonder what the people who paid hundreds of £$€ when the piece first appeared will think of this news"
"Fools and their money are easily parted"
Seriously though, when this duck was revealed in September it was known that lego house would be making more in the future. Regardless, can't imagine this news will bother anyone who paid hundreds for one of these trinkets though as they clearly have so much money that losing any amount means nothing.
A resin based UV light 3D printer would have made this part look like Lego. I wonder why they seem to use a method that absolutely requires to sand the parts when the alternative already exists. You could make this STL Lego uses look good with a 150$ machine from Amazon.
@Anonym:
Possibly something to do with what plastics can be run on which machines?
When will I be able to add the Duck to my brickset collection?